Monday –
3 hours reading.
Wanted to finish brushing up on Tawada before the seminar. Wanted to explore some more of the text. I’m starting to see Perloff’s delightfully dry sense of humor.
Total: 3 hours
Tuesday –
3. 5 hours of class
Class was amazing. I got great feedback for one of my poems. I’m glad that I can continue to write and develop as a poet and as a novelist. I love writing.
4 hours of writing
Finally finished the handwritten draft of Mauri’s story. It needs a whole lot of spit and polish, but it’s getting there. The draft is still going to be really rough, but it should end up working out alright. Letting it sit for a while before I start trying to digitize it.
1 hour of cover letter editing
I really should not leave this to the last second every time. Hard not to with all of the other class work and then it’s always fresh in my mind for Sandy. ‘
Total: 8.5 hours
Cumulative total: 10.5 hours
Wednesday –
1 hour meeting with Sandy
She did not actually get a chance to read my script. We edited my cover letter some more, talked about what my story might need in terms of editing. She really enjoys the flow of my story, asked me some questions about what was going on with it.
3 hours editing my manuscript
There was someone online who was volunteering to edit stuff, so I emailed off a copy of my story. I want to polish it more before I send it off. She added almost three thousand words of edits, so I spend a few hours pouring over the script and polishing it up. I’ll also have to do the utterly tedious business of putting it in the format that BSB wants it. And now the big question. To paragraph or not to paragraph.
Total: 4 hours
Cumulative total: 14.5 hours
Thursday
1 hour trans* talk
Went to the presentation what’s trans* about queerness now. It was alright, mostly geared toward informing people about why transgender studies is a necessary field. I didn’t really need convincing. I knew about some of the historical erasure but not all of it.
2 hours editing manuscript
So many edits. I have some quibbles with what the person editing wanted, but we’ll see how it goes. I never realized how consciously I make a lot of my writing choices. Or rather, I make them unconsciously, but I make them deliberately. I have a lot of reasons for writing the way that I do. That’s a nice surprise. Makes me feel less like a hack.
5 hours reading
Neuro is DENSE this week. Also reading some commentary on Tamora Pierce and her strong female characters. Trying to read some reviews of fantasy. Also found a great book that deals with abortion and the regulation of female bodies. I wanted to read stories about women who had gotten pregnant from rape in order to make sure that I was doing the story a service. This is a sensitive issue and I want to do it right.
Total: 8 hours
Cumulative total: 29.5 hours
Friday
4 hours reading
Perloff this time. I love the themes, the idea of taking the mundane and making it poetic. Makes me wonder if cities have their own rhythm and if the rhythm affects speech cadence.
2 hours manuscript editing
There are so many edits. I love writing, I really do, but the rewriting gets to me after a while.
Total: 6 hours
Cumulative total: 35.5 hours
Saturday:
4 hours writing
Mostly poetry for the ealphabet.
2 hours editing
These edits will never, ever stop. There is just no end. Oh well. Price to pay if it makes my writing better.
2 hours reading
Finishing off the reading for the week. Want to have a day off on Sunday, only want to do the cover letter on Monday.
Total: 8 hours
Cumulative total: 43.5 hours
Quarter total: 327.5 hours